A fight for life broke out deep in the ocean last week as workers continue to struggle with an oil leak 5,000 feet below sea and first on the scene was a robot. According to CBS News, the gush is 42,000 gallons a day and a perilous threat to a vast food chain in the Gulf of Mexico.

The rig that exploded and sank was owned by BP Exploration and Development. No mention at all was made of the maker of the sub. Perhaps that illustrates how pervasive robots are in the marine sector – are there so many that this technology barely gets a nod even when it goes to places that pose the ultimate risk to life?

It’s not just a robot that is fighting to stave off the killer stain of this oil leak. It is a combination of technology and engineering that results in situational awareness and control through a robotic device. It is science and art. And if art imitates life then there is a delicious irony that the Father of Robotics, Joseph F. Engelberger himself, was a one-time submariner.

Mont Coal, West Virginia is in the news after the specter of a coalmining tragedy that took dozens of lives. Robots are in the news, too, as journalists ask if something like the Mars Rover couldn’t be used to increase the safety of mining here on Earth. More and more, when lives are at stake robots become relevant.

ABC News wanted to know if robots could do man’s dirty work and talked to Red Whittaker of RedZone Robotics and Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. A winner of RIA’s Joseph F. Engelberger Award in Technology, he is a pioneer for robots in unstructured environments including mines.

He is quoted about robotics work already conducted in mining environments, and talks about the possibilities and limits of what robots can do whether it be exploration or search and rescue.